Category Archives: Books

Calling all co-sailing, surf, adventure enthusiasts. I have been following Captain Liz Clark’s voyage on Swell since she set sail back around ten years ago. At that time she was not a Patagonia Ambassador nor a Nat Geo Adventurer but boy has she earned both those titles. We are so excited to have her stop in Santa Monica. Join us if you can. For her 10 ways to make a better world, click the link above. Hope to see you there!

Kaui Hart Hemmings (The Descendants) released a new young adult book this month entitled Juniors. In the story, the main character, Lea Lane, is a junior in high-school who has just moved back to Hawaii from California with her actress mother. They are invited to move into the guest house on the estate of an uber-rich family friend. The Wests, whose grounds they are staying on, have a beautiful daughter the same age as Lea and a gorgeous older brother who is a senior. The father, in the early stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s, and the slightly manic mother add to the mixed emotions Lea feels while navigating life at her high school, Punahou, and her new home. In Juniors, Lea finds out who she truly is amid the backdrop of sand, surf, and swaying palms.

Juniors is a fun summer (or anytime) read that flies along at a good pace and explores issues of gender, socioeconomic, and identity roles. Surfer girls of all ages will enjoy.

Joseph Tomarchio approached me last year about contributing to his collection of short stories, Legacy of Stoke: A Collection of the Stories that Made Us Surfers (Volume 1). The instructions were pretty simple: tell a story about learning or teaching, how were you initiated, and/or how you passed on the legacy. In case it wasn’t totally obvious, I am passionate about surfing and all that it has done for me, so I gladly said yes. It was a treat to receive the bound copy last week of Volume 1. My story was included along with many other voices and experiences. It was fun to read through and hear from surfers around the world “talking story” about their experiences in the water. Some stories were similar to mine—learning to surf relatively late in life and having it change us, such as Karen Shatafian’s passage. Others were inspirational, like the one from Charlie Paradise, who was traveling down the wrong path in life when surfing saved him. Or the one from Kim Byrne, who overcame various medical complications to surf once again. Stoke fills the pages through the stories and excerpts from other books. I urge you to pick up a copy, available on Amazon.

And for those of you who have so much stoke that it trickles out of you and onto the written page, Joseph is collecting stories for Volume 2.